Mr Phil Bull founder of Timeform

Fascinating but I'm not sure Phil Bull comes out of it very well. From the start he comes across as a golf-club boor banging on about politics, and later on seems out-of-touch on the racecourse, with one bookmaker clearly never having heard of Bull's claimed FPTP betting arrangement. Presumably Bull had retired from day-to-day punting and form arrangement at least a decade earlier.

One point that has just occurred to me was that Bull makes the point he had to sell his speed figures under a pseudonym or he'd have been sacked as a teacher, even though he was earning far more from betting than as a teacher. Why did he care?

He cared because he'd have been called up and sent to France with a rifle over his shoulder! Teaching was a reserved occupation.

Bull didn't like the prog. Not surprised. Great racing man but came across as a champers socialist hobnobbing with the toffs.

A few here would have loved those days with all that snobbery.

His money supposedly came first from the successful punting.

I watched it this morning on tv YouTube which I have just discovered quiet enjoyable .

Howard if you saw ardross you must have seen le moss

howard19 Mar 24 15:00Joined: 09 Mar 03 | Topic/replies: 13,225 | Blogger: howard's blog
as regards betting you have to think you know everything and nearly everyone else knows nothing. Most pro's fit that description imo.

Possibly true howard ^

But an awful lot of degenerate, habitual, life-long losers also fit that description.

I think some on here don't like the idea of successful punters.

I would agree howard it’s between **** and le moss as the two best stayers I would go with le moss probably an age think ,whilst I know ardross was 2 nd in an arc I think many forget le moss was 2nd in a st leger and the score between them was 3 0 in favour of le moss .

an extremely wise comment sparrow.  It's one of the main reasons why Betfair hasn't "gone to the moon". If you lose it's directly to other punters. If you win with bookies you still take money from other punters. Unless people think bookies are going bankrupt all the time which of course they are not certainly the big names.

I don't why the quote sometimes works and sometimes doesn't -anyway meant to say that it was in his personal life not his punting life .

I would suggest that what people on the forum might not like are his politics.

yeah they might not like him being ( extreme ) left wing. OR they may like him being left wing but not like the toff social life rolls-royce and living in a "castle"

idiot fred. coward is a g1 wanchor and conspiracy mug. stfu you twerp

I found him interesting and his betting strange until I realised he was covering himself quite a lot by backing 2 or possibly 3 in the same race , his idea of value left a lot to be desired imo . Golden Fleece been a prime example , having had inside info from Robert and the horse going from twos out to 3 surely made him a value bet.I was also surprised how often he got it wrong even even watching it live on T.V..Ardross race been a clear example , still a brilliant mind when you think what Timeform ended up becoming, I was always perplexed about who he reminded me of until it he said George Bernard Shaw was his idol then the beard became obvious....

Byline: HOWARD WRIGHT

DICK WHITFORD, who could rightfully lay claim to being the father of modern handicapping, as well as the joint-founder of Timeform, has died. He would have been 93 on Thursday, and his health had been in decline since the death of his wife Julie 18 months ago.

Whitford invented a system of handicapping by ratings as an extension of his interest in logarithms and mathematics, and used it to occupy spare time after being called up as first officer on a hospital ship during the Second World War, when he was involved both at Dunkirk and in the D-Day landings.

He first went to sea after leaving school at the age of 14 to support his family on his father's death, but left the Merchant Navy in 1932 to become an advertising copywriter for the electrical company Ecko.

As the war drew to a close in 1945, Whitford arranged to meet Phil Bull, who had been publishing time figures for a number of years, at Newmarket.

An offer to join Bull as his assistant followed and the marriage of Bull's time

figures and Whitford's form ratings became public for the first time in April 1948.

The ratings became the basis upon which Timeform's international status, as well as the sport's current handicapping system, were founded, although

Bull did not publicly acknowledge

Whitford's significance and the pair parted company at the end of 1949,

when financial and business promises made by Bull to Whitford failed to materialise.

Whitford turned down an offer to work for William Hill and instead became racing manager and private handicapper to racehorse owner Jack Gerber, in what proved to be a most successful

period for his horses.

When Gerber returned to South

Africa in 1971, Whitford became The Sporting Life's Flat-race handicapper

until ill health forced him to retire in

1984. He and his wife went to Mallorca, from where they returned three years

ago to live near their daughter Sue in

Devon.

Whitford served as the Racegoers' Club's nominee on the Horseracing

Advisory Council - the forerunner of the Industry Committee - for over three years. Ironically, he was chosen to replace Phil Bull.

The funeral is at Exeter crematorium on Friday at 2.30pm.


Published March 2004.

workrider , jim mcgrath was asked would Bull have liked Betfair?  " very much "  " why"?   "Laying "

yes apparently Bull offered him buttons for what was arguably the most important part of the job.

Workrider .
I used  to follow  Dick Whitford in the life well over  40 years ago.

Sparrow onlooker often takes a break from the forum